happy goodbye
by Airway Static
Summary: They all made their seperate decisions in the end and maybe that was for the best because at least they were still able to function happily afterwards.


Roxas was most notably _not _going insane. He was not imagining up mysterious redheads who practically turned cryptic into a language just because he was a bit bored with the non-eventful summer. He _didn't _conjure up some creepy shadow monsters just because he was as depressed as others thought he was and felt darkness should engulf the world or paranoid and jumped at eyes in the night that weren't really there. And he most definitely could not possibly be suicidal even if he had dreamt of falling off the clock tower.

Nope, none of this was weird in the slightest.

All Roxas had to do was close his eyes, count to ten, and everything would be familiar again. He'd be back to sea salt ice cream on top of the station and trips to the beach and lazy days spent at the usual spot. That's what he told himself.

He did not meet a blond girl who had absolutely no tact. The shining keys that had suddenly appeared in his hands could not exist. And the possibility that the very town he loved and lived in could be a total lie wasn't real.

But the empty space where his heart should be was.

After that, everything just seemed to force its way into reality. He didn't exist, the Keyblade did, and Sora had to wake up. It'd be a lie to say he wasn't pissed as all hell but there was nothing to do. He wasn't about to go back to those times of mindless carnage. Even if they were only heartless, that didn't stop the black blood that flowed if you didn't kill them in one hit or the bones that snapped or the armor that chipped and cracked.

It wouldn't do to return to those cries of defeat, the merciless slaughter, and the frenzied effort to collect hearts. He couldn't stand for it.

So Roxas cut his summer vacation short.

xxx

No, Olette wasn't worried. She wasn't. It didn't bother her in the slightest that Roxas seemed to be drifting further and further away. She wasn't concerned about how strange he'd been acting and the way that he seemed to see things neither her nor anyone else could see.

Roxas had mentioned an odd redhead. As far as Olette knew, no one in Twilight Town matched the description. She had also neither seen nor heard of a blond girl living in the old mansion.

But she had a lot of personal problems and had to put aside everything else to work through those first. And once those were sorted out, everything seemed to have gone back to normal. She was still looking out for her friends and Pence was still taking pictures and Hayner was still challenging Seifer.

Nothing had changed. The three of them still hung out in the usual spot and still took turns buying ice cream.

Maybe later she'd remember that she'd been worrying about something but she could think of nothing wrong at the moment so it must have resolved itself right? If that was the case, she wouldn't think on it anymore because school was starting soon and demanded attention.

So Olette forgot.

xxx

Pence wasn't forgetting anything. At all. He was just a little scatterbrained. That was the reason for all the extra ice cream and the weird qualities his photos had suddenly taken on.

His usually centered pictures weren't that centered anymore. It wasn't that he was doing it on purpose; he just seemed to keep forgetting that it was only Hayner and Olette in the picture.

The same thing happened with the ice cream. He didn't make the conscious decision to buy four-it just ended up that way. In fact, he never really realized the request for four of the salty-sweet treats had come out of his mouth until he had been handed the bag over the counter and was halfway back to wherever Hayner and Olette were situated. But it seemed like no matter how hard he'd try he could never quite break this habit he didn't remember forming.

Pence was a pretty easy going person. Usually he would've forgotten about it in a second. But something about the situation struck him as fundamentally wrong. So he thought about it. No amount of thought, however, could bring about a conclusion or even any clues.

So he just learned to ignore it.

xxx

Caring had never been a strong suit of Hayner's. That's why he tried to do it as little as possible. Sure, there were his family and Pence and Olette but they were usually the extent of it all. Not now though, because something was strange.

He felt like he was missing something. Or someone. But no one Hayner knew had left so it must be a thing. Then again, what kind of thing left behind such a feeling?

It was as if one of his closest friends were gone. But that's where the problem lay because he only had two and both were within easy walking distance no matter where they were.

Things continued on in a deceptively normal way and sometimes Hayner could ignore the feeling of wanting to care about somebody that wasn't there. It was always there though; nagging him all day from the back of his mind and clamoring for his attention at night.

That's when Hayner obviously started to get mad. It had been weeks and he was still missing someone. The whole thing was pretty tiring, really. And because Hayner wasn't used to caring, because he was tired of the feeling, and mostly because he honestly just wanted it all to end, he stopped thinking about it.

So Hayner let it go.


End file.
